University of Georgia Athletics
Nacho Blog:
September 07, 2011 | Men's Tennis
Sept. 7, 2011
Hey Bulldawg Nation!
This is Ignacio Taboada, or "Nacho," as everyone calls me around here. So it looks like I am taking on a big task and taking over the blog for the UGA Men's Tennis Team this year. As many of you remember, last year our team captain and senior Drake Bernstein did an amazing job with the blog, so I'm definitely feeling some pressure! Unfortunately, Drake is not with us this year (he is living the life out in Vegas!), but we still have the great and unique Javier Garrapiz as our third coach for the year, so if any of you know Javi, it will be entertaining to say the least! This year we have another great group of guys, amazing coaches, the best manager in the country (Matt Jackson), and a lot of great goals to accomplish, so a lot to look forward to!
This summer was awesome for the team because a lot of us (Sadio Doumbia, Garrett Brasseaux, Wil Spencer, Campbell Johnson, Will Oliver, Will Reynolds, and freshman Nathan Pasha), after taking some time off after a great run at NCAA's, decided to do some summer school and continue our hard off-season training together. It was crazy to see how hard the guys were working during the summer. We were getting together for a couple hours of tennis, then gym and conditioning, while managing our summer classes. You can really see in the eyes of everyone on the team this year how bad we want a national championship, and we are ready to do whatever it takes. I was extremely impressed with Nathan's work ethic during the summer. He is showing how hard he is ready to work and is going to contribute big time for us this year.
So we started our "official" practices last Wednesday, but we have been doing our 6 a.m. runs, gym workouts, and getting the team together to practice since It is impossible to explain how bad these runs are, especially at six in the morning, but our strength coach, Kat Koch, is unbelievable, and the runs ultimately pay off and make us one of the top conditioned teams in the country!
Last weekend we had our first team tournament of the fall against Boise State. Sadio, Wil, Nathan, and Eric Diaz competed in this two-day tournament, doing well both days and starting off the fall with great momentum. In about three weeks, we will have our first big tournament of the fall at home - the Southern Intercollegiate Championships - at the end of the month. It will be a great way to see where we are and how our competition is going to be this year. Please come out and support us!! It will be Sept. 24-28 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. "Winning the fall", as we like to say in our locker room, is what we tell ourselves everyday before practice, and it's our goal to be the most improved team this year and win NCAA's here in Athens in the spring!
Thanks for reading my first blog and GO DAWGS!
---Nacho
